A 7-year-old boy was killed in Brooklyn on Thursday morning when the driver of a Police Department tow truck hit him while he was crossing the street, the police said.
The collision occurred on the northern border of Fort Greene Park at about 7:45 a.m., when the boy and his mother were in the crosswalk on Myrtle Avenue, the police said. The tow truck driver tried to make a right turn onto North Portland Avenue and struck the boy, who was on his way to school. Emergency medical workers arrived and pronounced the boy dead.
The driver of the truck, a 54-year-old woman, remained at the scene, the police said, and the investigation was continuing.
Jeffrey Maddrey, the Police Department’s chief of department, said during a briefing that he had visited the site of the collision, as did several teachers from the child’s school.
“It was a very tough scene to be at this morning,” he said.
Mary Lynne Werlwas, who has lived in the neighborhood for 24 years, said she had gone to move her car on Thursday morning when she heard a commotion at the crosswalk. A large crowd surrounded a woman sitting in the middle of the street next to a figure covered in a white sheet. The woman was distraught, Ms. Werlwas said, saying, “My baby is dead.”
“The community, everybody is very upset,” Ms. Werlwas said.
Tyrana Carter, who witnessed the collision, said the boy had been riding a bright green scooter next to his mother, who was pushing another child in a stroller, as they crossed the street. The driver of the tow truck, Ms. Carter said, appeared to be trying to beat a yellow light when she hit the boy.
At the scene hours after the collision, a white sheet lay in the cordoned-off crosswalk, next to the green scooter and a small orange backpack.
Ms. Carter said her granddaughter went to day care with the boy who was killed.
“He was a baby who was full of energy, full of life,” said Ms. Carter. “I saw a future for him.”
Antwoan Hayes was dropping off his children at school and was in a nearby store when he saw the tow truck heading toward the family in the crosswalk.
Mr. Hayes said that after the collision, the child’s mother chased the tow truck down the street, screaming that the driver had killed her baby.
“The mother just started screaming at the highest pitch,” Mr. Hayes said. “That was heart-wrenching.”
Crystal Hudson, a member of the City Council who represents Fort Greene, released a statement criticizing the Police Department for what she called “a lack of discipline and care in the field.” Ms. Hudson noted that a pedestrian was killed last year in her district when a police van struck him.
“This morning we were devastated to learn of the tragic death of one of our youngest neighbors,” Ms. Hudson said. “This is the worst possible outcome, and yet we are forced to reckon with it all too often.”
The death comes two years after a driver killed Apolline Mong-Guillemin, a 3-month-old, roughly 10 blocks away.
Eric Adams, then the Brooklyn borough president, said at a news conference near the site of the baby’s death that he was “tired of seeing families torn apart by the epidemic of traffic violence” and called for a “a holistic rethinking of our streetscape to stop this carnage.”
Since Mr. Adams became mayor, cyclist and pedestrian deaths in New York City have increased.
The boy was the 73rd pedestrian killed in a traffic collision this year, according to Transportation Alternatives, a safe-streets group. That is slightly fewer deaths than had occurred last year by this time, when 78 pedestrians had been killed, the group said.
Since 2014, when the city began its Vision Zero program to reduce traffic fatalities, at least 26 children have been killed in traffic while walking to or from school, according to Transportation Alternatives.
Myrtle Avenue is a busy thoroughfare in Fort Greene, a neighborhood of shops, schools and restaurants.
Thea Grant, a local parent, said she had been concerned about the traffic on the avenue. There are three schools in one building just around the corner from where the collision occurred, one of which Ms. Grant’s children attend, she said, but this year “the crossing guards have disappeared.”
“I don’t understand why that’s not important or why we would take that for granted,” Ms. Grant said. “That is so dangerous. People just go really fast down Myrtle and they’re not seeing kids. They’re just not expecting it.”
The Police Department confirmed on Thursday that it had eliminated 483 crossing guard positions ahead of this school year, but a spokesperson added that “no active positions were eliminated.”
Debra Williamson, who has lived in the area for eight years and has six children, said drivers are known for speeding and running lights.
“This is terrifying to me,” Ms. Williamson said. “I knew this was coming, but I don’t know what to do.”
Dana Rubinstein and Andy Newman contributed reporting.
Credit: Source link
